We make apple sauce/jam and also dried apple slices, but most of our apples our neighbour takes care of. He runs them in a garden shredder, presses it and pasturizes? - nothing added - and bag up (bag-in-box bags). We emptied our last bag from last year just weeks ago. Still as fresh as new - and that’s ordinary junk apples - transparant blanche?
I have no experience with making hard cider though, but I bet @KristijanL , being Slovenian, knows every alcohol related recipe 
Edit: Now that I think about it I did make a 25l cider batch a couple years ago and Kristijan was involved. As I remember it I just filled up a 25l can of apple chunks and added water. It sat for a few weeks and reached 7% if I remember correctly. After botteling it, it developed a sparkling caracter over time. Brobably access fruit sugar. No best seller material, but ok.
We call unfiltered apple juice cider and filtered apple juice is just apple juice. 
If you are going to make hard cider, you want to blend a couple of different varieties in to give it more flavor. Otherwise it is rather bland. Even drops from the overgrown tree at the end of a lane is fine. And worms add necessary protein and flavor.
I might ask JO to translate, but (mums) something good or very good.
Can’t you show me your tomatoes Tom, I don’t understand how you can grow tomatoes outside, you saw what my plant looked like, it probably thinks it’s cold here.
mums are short for chrysanthemum the flower.
Wondering if I should make slits instead of holes, it looks like there will be a lot of juice at the top?
It is usually slats. Well the whole bucket is slats so the juice comes out the side. Then the whole thing is lined with a couple of layers of cheesecloth. Then you can pull the cheesecloth out, and squeeze it to get rest of the juice out.
Just crush it the best you can. it will mostly separate and the way you have it some will be on top.
I remember that. I think you also put some berrys in.
Johan, cider is simple. Squeezed, strained juice is left to ferment in an air tight vessel (airlock) and once the bubbling stops, you let it setle for a few days and transfer in a clean, air tight vessel. Put in a cool place where it will clarify mature. In this vessel you also add sulfide if you chose to, to prevent oxidation and leave a bit of unfermented sugar.
Jan, doesent matter but usualy we put a plastic mash around and on top of the basket. Like a moskito net
You could use a paint strainer bag from the hardware store, maybe give the bags a good wash before using. The more sanitary your conditions the better.
Also in the US we used to have Soft Cider. Cider that’s only allowed to ferment for a day or two to get carbonated. At most 1% alcohol.
No air lock on this one?
No rebotteling after this or is it supposed to be bottles in this step?
Sulfide is something I would rather not have in anything so I guess oxidation is what I get but if it makes CO2 still then it should not be anything to worry about if I understand it right.
But if no sulfide is used, does it still ferment until all sugars are gone then? And is it drinkable without any sugar
I sense a side tone, but I’m old enough it doesn’t bother me at all
Mums = Yum
Mumsigt = Yummy
No, actually not.
You seem to be interested in the language, so I think you can translate.
Nice improvised press Jan 
Slits would work better but is hard with that setup and not lose the integrity of the bucket. Perhaps more holes further up in a few heights?
I think muslin cloth is what is commonly used inside to filter out the mush, cheese cloth works too but breaks more easily. I would choose something like an Ikea bed sheet over a cheese cloth, cheap and easily avaliable, hot washed first.
I bet the juice was good though
You wanted to see my tomatoes Jan. Kind of ashamed about how messy they are. These are determinates and kind of sprawl out if you don’t get them in cages. Actually the double row on the right are Rutgers, which are indeterminate but grow bushy like a determinate. On the left is a row of Siberian.
The tomato in the black bucket is a Siberian. I have already taken 15 pounds of tomatoes off this plant and it’s just getting going. These are early season tomatoes and start producing about two weeks before the others. The ones in the other buckets are Rutgers that I started late.
A row of Roma’s. These are heavy producers.
Individual roma.
Not sure why growing tomatoes is a problem for you. Sounds like you get a fair amount of warm days and living at your latitude you should be getting plenty of daylight hours. Alaska has probably a similar climate and because of the extended daylight I have seen some amazing gardens pictured there. Tomatoes really like two things. Heat in the eighty to ninety degree F range and they prefer a PH of around 6. They will grow up to a neutral 7 but are very unhappy beyond that. When I get my seeds saved I will send you some of these Siberian. They may work well for you.
Thanks Tom, we live between some lakes, so the wind is always blowing, it could also be the variety of tomato it depends, my tomatoes are probably more for greenhouses, there have been tomatoes on my plant, but I don’t think so they have time to finish…
Wonderful post TomH.
You and I have evolved to the same outlooks.
A mid-way very practical place between the open ground level “natural” hazarded by bugs, slugs, fourlegged varmints, winged varmints; droughts, storm down-surges of rain, hail, sleet and all.
Versus the lets grow-all in an engineered pumped nutrient flow with just enough sterilized holding media to stabilize growths. So’s . . . could be done in big re-purposes industrial building in dense Urban areas. Or, in-space habitats. Or, on Mars . . .
Ha! You can move your buckets to more favorable. To under protective cover.
Wife’s and mine, 2.5 foot by 9 foot by 32 inch high grow beds I individual off/on protect cover. From frosts. Too much sun. Drought drying. Flying diseases spreading bugs. Hail.
We do not pursue a wishy-washy middle ground compromise.
We cherry pick the bests of both of the other extremes approaches.
Best Regards
Steve Unruh
@tcholton717 @SteveUnruh Do you feel that the benefits growing tomatoes in buckets are worth the extra watering? I’m thinking that they must get less water from rain and such spreading and keeping in the soil, depending on what kind of soil you have of course.
I didn’t even plan on planting in that garden area this year Steve, because of the rampant critter population but since they mostly leave the tomatoes and cukes alone I went ahead. Not liking the looks of things out in the world. If I plant there again I will make the foldable plastic frames to cover beds I want to grow leaf crops in. They were eaten almost as soon as I got them started this year. Should have done it this year. All my buckets are getting UV brittle. I am buying grow bags I’ll start using from now on. Of course after I have already spent the money for bags this guy posts this.
